1.
Italian language
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By most measures, Italian, together with Sardinian, is the closest to Latin of the Romance languages. Italian is a language in Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City. Italian is spoken by minorities in places such as France, Montenegro, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Crimea and Tunisia and by large expatriate communities in the Americas. Many speakers are native bilinguals of both standardized Italian and other regional languages, Italian is the fourth most studied language in the world. Italian is a major European language, being one of the languages of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe. It is the third most widely spoken first language in the European Union with 65 million native speakers, including Italian speakers in non-EU European countries and on other continents, the total number of speakers is around 85 million. Italian is the working language of the Holy See, serving as the lingua franca in the Roman Catholic hierarchy as well as the official language of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. Italian is known as the language of music because of its use in musical terminology and its influence is also widespread in the arts and in the luxury goods market. Italian has been reported as the fourth or fifth most frequently taught foreign language in the world, Italian was adopted by the state after the Unification of Italy, having previously been a literary language based on Tuscan as spoken mostly by the upper class of Florentine society. Its development was influenced by other Italian languages and to some minor extent. Its vowels are the second-closest to Latin after Sardinian, unlike most other Romance languages, Italian retains Latins contrast between short and long consonants. As in most Romance languages, stress is distinctive, however, Italian as a language used in Italy and some surrounding regions has a longer history. What would come to be thought of as Italian was first formalized in the early 14th century through the works of Tuscan writer Dante Alighieri, written in his native Florentine. Dante is still credited with standardizing the Italian language, and thus the dialect of Florence became the basis for what would become the language of Italy. Italian was also one of the recognised languages in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Italy has always had a dialect for each city, because the cities. Those dialects now have considerable variety, as Tuscan-derived Italian came to be used throughout Italy, features of local speech were naturally adopted, producing various versions of Regional Italian. Even in the case of Northern Italian languages, however, scholars are not to overstate the effects of outsiders on the natural indigenous developments of the languages
2.
Bicameralism
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A bicameral legislature is one in which the legislators are divided into two separate assemblies, chambers or houses. As of 2015, somewhat less than half of the national legislatures are bicameral. Often, the members of the two chambers are elected or selected using different methods, which vary from country to country and this can often lead to the two chambers having very different compositions of members. However, in many Westminster system parliaments, the house to which the executive is responsible can overrule the other house, some legislatures lie in between these two positions, with one house only able to overrule the other under certain circumstances. For example, one house would represent the aristocracy, and the other would represent the commoners as was the case in the Kingdom of England. Others, such as France under the Ancien Régime had a legislature known as the Estates General, which consisted of separate chambers for the clergymen, the nobility. The Founding Fathers of the United States also favoured a bicameral legislature, the idea was to have the Senate be wealthier and wiser. Benjamin Rush saw this though, and noted that, this type of dominion is almost always connected with opulence, the Senate was created to be a stabilising force, elected not by mass electors, but selected by the State legislators. Senators would be more knowledgeable and more sort of republican nobility—and a counter to what Madison saw as the fickleness. He noted further that the use of the Senate is to consist in its proceeding with more coolness, with system and with more wisdom. Madisons argument led the Framers to grant the Senate prerogatives in foreign policy, an area where steadiness, discretion, the Senate was chosen by state legislators, and senators had to possess a significant amount of property in order to be deemed worthy and sensible enough for the position. In fact, it was not until the year 1913 that the 17th Amendment was passed, as part of the Great Compromise, they invented a new rationale for bicameralism in which the Senate would have states represented equally, and the House would have them represented by population. Many nations with parliaments have to some degree emulated the British three-tier model, nevertheless, the older justification for second chambers—providing opportunities for second thoughts about legislation—has survived. An example of controversy regarding a second chamber has been the debate over the powers of the Canadian Senate or the election of the Senate of France. The relationship between the two chambers varies, in cases, they have equal power, while in others. The first tends to be the case in federal systems and those with presidential governments, the latter tends to be the case in unitary states with parliamentary systems. In the United States both houses of the U. S and this is due to their original location in the two-story building that was to house them. In Canada, the country as a whole is divided into a number of Senate Divisions, each with a different number of Senators, Senators in Canada are not elected by the people but are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the Prime Minister
3.
Italian Parliament
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The Italian Parliament is the national parliament of the Italian Republic. The Parliament is the body of Italian citizens and is the successor to the Parliament of the Kingdom of Sardinia. It is a legislature with 950 elected members and a small number of unelected members. The two houses are independent from one another and never meet jointly except under circumstances specified by the Constitution, on the other hand, no distinction is made between deputies and senators. The Chamber of Deputies has 630 elected members, while the Senate has 315 elected members, the Senate of the Republic also includes a small number of unelected members. There are two categories of senators for life, former Presidents of the Republic are senators for life by law, unless they renounce this privilege. Furthermore, Presidents of the Republic can appoint up to five Italian citizens as senators for life for outstanding merits in the social, scientific, artistic or literary field. Similarly, the two houses have a different age of candidacy, deputies are required to be 25 or older, no explicit age limit is required to be appointed senator for life. The main prerogative of the Parliament is the exercise of legislative power, for a bill to become law, it must receive the support of both houses independently in the same text. A bill is first introduced in one of the houses, amended, and then approved or rejected, if approved, it is passed to the other house, if approved without amendments, the bill is then promulgated by the President of the Republic and becomes law. If approved with amendments, it is back to the other house. The process continues until the bill is approved in the text by both houses or is rejected by one house. The Council of Ministers, which is led by the Prime Minister and is the executive of Italy. If the President of the Republic is unable to find a new Prime Minister able to receive the support of both houses, he or she can dissolve one or both houses and new elections are held. The process by which the Italian Parliament makes law, the iter legis, is as follows, proposals can be made by the Government, individual Members of Parliament, private citizens, individual Regional Councils, and the National Council for Economics and Labour. Once a proposal is introduced in one of the two Chambers, it is assigned to a committee to carry out preliminary inspection of the proposal. At this point, two different procedures can be taken and this must be completed in no more than four months for the Chamber of Deputies and two months for the Senate. Once the bill has come before one of the chambers, a discussion takes place, followed by the review article by article, and finally a vote on the whole bill
4.
Chamber of Deputies (Italy)
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The Chamber of Deputies is a house of the bicameral Parliament of Italy. The two houses form a perfect bicameral system, meaning they perform identical functions, but do so separately. Pursuant to article 56 of the Italian Constitution, the Chamber of Deputies has 630 seats, of which 618 are elected from Italian constituencies, Deputies are styled The Honourable and meet at Palazzo Montecitorio. Previously, the seat of the Chamber of Deputies of the Kingdom of Italy had been briefly at the Palazzo Carignano in Turin and the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence. Under the Fascist regime of Benito Mussolini, from 1939 to 1943, the Chamber is composed of all members meeting in session at the Montecitorio. The assembly also has the right to meetings of the Government. If required, the Government is obligated to attend the session, conversely, the Government has the right to be heard every time it requires. The term of office of the House is five years,61.2 of the Constitution, states that representatives whose term has expired shall continue to exercise their functions until the first meeting of the new Chamber. An extension of the term, provided for by art,60.2, can be enacted only in case of war. Election of members to the Chamber of Deputies is by voluntary, universal, terms last for a total of five years, unless an early dissolution of the Chamber is called by the President of the Republic, at which point a snap election is held. Unlike the Senate, which members to be 40 years of age. The current system for elections to the Chamber of Deputies has been in operation since 2015, the territory of Italy is divided into 100 constituencies electing between 3 and 9 deputies depending on their size. For each constituency, the parties designate a list of candidates, head of list candidates can run in up to 10 constituencies, if two preference votes are expressed, they must be of a different sex, otherwise, the second preference is discarded. Only parties passing a 3% minimum threshold in the first round are assigned seats, if the party receiving the plurality of the votes passes a 40% threshold, it is attributed a minimum of 340 seats. The remaining 277 seats are allocated to the other parties using the largest remainder method. This provision was however rendered null and void by a Constitutional Courts judgment in January 2017, the President of the Chamber of Deputies performs the role of speaker of the house and is elected during the first session after the election. During this time the prerogatives of speaker are assumed by the vicepresident of Chamber of Deputies of the legislature who was elected first. If two were elected simultaneously, the oldest deputy serves as president of Chamber of Deputies, the President of Chamber of Deputies has also the role of President during the Parliament joint sessions, when the upper and lower houses have to vote together
5.
Senate of the Republic (Italy)
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The Senate of the Republic is a house of the bicameral Italian Parliament. The two houses form a perfect bicameral system, meaning they perform identical functions, but do so separately. Members of the Senate are styled Senator or The Honourable Senator and they meet at Palazzo Madama, the Senate consists of 315 elected members, and as of 2016 five senators for life. The elected senators must be over 40 years of age and are elected by Italian citizens aged 25 or older, the Senate is elected on a regional basis. The 309 senators are assigned to each region according to their population. However, Article 57 of the Constitution provides that no region can have fewer than seven senators representing it, except for the Aosta Valley and Molise. The five current life senators are, The current term of the Senate is five years, until a Constitutional change on February 9,1963, the Senate was elected for six-year terms. The Senate may be dissolved before the expiration of its normal term by the President of the Republic, in 2016, Italian Parliament passed a constitutional law that effectively abolishes the Senate as an elected chamber and sharply restricts its ability to veto legislation. The law was rejected on December 4,2016 by a referendum, the election of the Senate is still regulated by Law no. 270, December 21,2005, which however was judged to be partly unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court in December 2013, in each Region, except for three, at least 55% of the seats are assigned to the coalition or list which received the most votes. The Aosta Valley elects one senator, so it uses a first past the post system, Molise elects two senators with a proportional system. Trentino-South Tyrol uses a mixed member system, it elects 6 senators in first past the post constituencies. That session, presided by the oldest senator, proceeds to elect the President of the Senate for the parliamentary period. On the first two attempts at voting, a majority of all senators is needed, if a third round is needed. If this third round fails to produce a winner, a ballot is held between the two senators with the highest votes in the previous ballot. In the case of a tie, the senator is deemed the winner. The current President of the Senate is Pietro Grasso, recent Presidents of the Italian Senate, Since 1871, the Senate has met in Palazzo Madama in Rome, an old patrician palace completed in 1505 for the Medici family. The palace takes its name from Madama Margherita of Austria, daughter of Charles V, after the extinction of the Medici, the palace was handed over to the House of Lorraine
6.
Sicilian Mafia
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The Sicilian Mafia, also known as simply the Mafia or Cosa Nostra, is a criminal syndicate in Sicily, Italy. It is an association of criminal groups that share a common organisational structure. The basic group is known as a family, clan, or cosca or cosche in Sicilian, each family claims sovereignty over a territory, usually a town or village or a neighbourhood of a larger city, in which it operates its rackets. Its members call themselves men of honour, although the public refers to them as mafiosi. The mafias core activities are protection racketeering, the arbitration of disputes between criminals, and the organizing and oversight of illegal agreements and transactions, following waves of emigration, the Mafia has spread to other countries such as the United States, Canada, and Australia. The word mafia originated in Sicily, though its origins are uncertain, the Sicilian adjective mafiusu roughly translates to mean swagger, but can also be translated as boldness, bravado. In reference to a man, mafiusu in 19th century Sicily was ambiguous, signifying a bully, arrogant but also fearless, enterprising and proud, in reference to a woman, however, the feminine-form adjective mafiusa means beautiful and attractive. The Sicilian word mafie refers to the caves near Trapani and Marsala, Sicily was once an Islamic emirate, therefore mafia might have Arabic roots. The words mafia and mafiusi are never mentioned in the play, the play is about a Palermo prison gang with traits similar to the Mafia, a boss, an initiation ritual, and talk of umirtà and pizzu. The play had great success throughout Italy, soon after, the use of the term mafia began appearing in the Italian states early reports on the phenomenon. The word made its first official appearance in 1865 in a report by the prefect of Palermo Filippo Antonio Gualterio, the term mafia has become a generic term for any organized criminal network with similar structure, methods, and interests. Nowadays people have gone so far in the direction that it has become an overused term. According to mafia turncoats, the name of the mafia is Cosa Nostra. Italian-American mafioso Joseph Valachi testified before the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the U. S. Senate Committee on Government Operations in 1963 and he revealed that American mafiosi referred to their organization by the term cosa nostra. At the time, it was understood as a name, fostered by the FBI. The FBI even added the article la to the term, calling it La Cosa Nostra, in 1984, mafia turncoat Tommaso Buscetta revealed to anti-mafia magistrate Giovanni Falcone that the term was used by the Sicilian Mafia, as well. Buscetta dismissed the word mafia as a literary creation. Other defectors such as Antonino Calderone and Salvatore Contorno confirmed the use of Cosa Nostra by members, mafiosi introduce known members to each other as belonging to cosa nostra or la stessa cosa, meaning he is the same thing as you — a mafioso
7.
Camorra
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The Camorra is an Italian Mafia-type crime syndicate, or secret society, which arose in the region of Campania and its capital Naples. It is one of the oldest and largest criminal organizations in Italy, unlike the pyramidal structure of the Sicilian Mafia, the Camorras organizational structure is more horizontal than vertical. Consequently, individual Camorra clans act independently of other, and are more prone to feuding among themselves. The origins of the Camorra are not entirely clear and it may date back to the 16th century as a direct Italian descendant of a Spanish secret society, the Garduña, founded in 1417. However, recent historical research in Spain suggests that the Garduña never really existed and was based on a fictional 19th century book, the first official use of the word dates from 1735, when a royal decree authorised the establishment of eight gambling houses in Naples. The word is almost certainly a blend, or portmanteau, of capo and a Neapolitan street game and this activity was prohibited by the local government, and some people started making the players pay for being “protected” against the passing police. The first official mention of the Camorra as an organization dates from 1820, when police records detail a disciplinary meeting of the Camorra and that year a first written statute, the frieno, was also discovered, indicating a stable organisational structure in the underworld. Another statute was discovered in 1842, including initiation rites and funds set aside for the families of those imprisoned, the organization was also known as the Bella Società Riformata, Società dell’Umirtà or Onorata Società. Another qualitative leap was the agreement of the opposition and the Camorra. The liberals realized that they needed support to overthrow the king. They turned to the Camorra and paid them, the camorristi being the leaders of the city’s poor, the Camorra effectively had developed into power brokers in a few decades. The Camorra was never a coherent whole nor a centralised organization, instead, it has always been a loose confederation of different, independent groups or families. Each group was bound around kinship ties and controlled economic activities which took place in its particular territory, each family clan took care of its own business, protected its territory, and sometimes tried to expand at another group’s expense. Although not centralized, there was some minimal coordination, to avoid mutual interference, the families competed to maintain a system of checks and balances between equal powers. One of the Camorras strategies to gain social prestige is political patronage, the family clans became the preferred interlocutors of local politicians and public officials, because of their grip on the community. In turn, the family used their political sway to assist. They granted privileges and protection, and intervened in favour of their clients in return for their silence and connivance against local authorities, compared to the Sicilian Mafias pyramidal structure, the Camorra has more of a horizontal than a vertical structure. As a result, individual Camorra clans act independently of each other and this however makes the Camorra more resilient when top leaders are arrested or killed, with new clans and organizations germinating out of the stumps of old ones
8.
'Ndrangheta
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The Ndràngheta is organized crime centered in Calabria, Italy. A US diplomat estimated that the narcotics trafficking, extortion. Since the 1950s, the organization has spread towards Northern Italy, according to a 2013 Threat Assessment on Italian Organised Crime of Europol, the Ndrangheta is among the richest and most powerful organised crime groups at a global level. In 1861 the prefect of Reggio Calabria already noticed the presence of so-called camorristi, since the 1880s, there is ample evidence of Ndrangheta-type groups in police reports and sentences by local courts. At the time they were often being referred to as the picciotteria, onorata società or camorra, an 1897 sentence from the court in Palmi mentioned a written code of rules found in the village of Seminara based on honour, secrecy, violence, solidarity and mutual assistance. In the folk culture surrounding Ndrangheta in Calabria, references to the Spanish Garduña often appear, aside from these references, however, there is nothing to substantiate a link between the two organizations. In many areas of Calabria the verb ndranghitiari, from the Greek verb andragathízesthai, the first time the word Ndrangheta was mentioned before a wider audience was by the Calabrian writer Corrado Alvaro in the Corriere della Sera in September 1955. Until 1975, the Ndrangheta restricted their Italian operations to Calabria, mainly involved in extortion and their involvement in cigarette contraband expanded their scope and contacts with the Sicilian Mafia and the neapolitan Camorra. With the arrival of public works in Calabria, skimming off public contracts became an important source of income. Disagreements over how to distribute the spoils led to the First Ndrangheta war killing 233 people, the prevailing factions began to kidnap rich people from northern Italy for ransom. It is believed that John Paul Getty III, kidnapped for ransom in 1973, was one of their victims, the Second Ndrangheta war raged from 1985 to 1991. The bloody six-year war between the Condello-Imerti-Serraino-Rosmini clans and the De Stefano-Tegano-Libri-Latella clans led to more than 600 deaths, the Sicilian Mafia contributed to the end of the conflict and probably suggested the subsequent set up of a superordinate body, called La Provincia, to avoid further infighting. In the 1990s, the organization started to invest in the international drug trade. Deputy President of the parliament of Calabria Francesco Fortugno was killed by the Ndrangheta on 16 October 2005 in Locri. Demonstrations against the organization then ensued, with young protesters carrying banderoles reading Ammazzateci tutti, the national government started a large-scale enforcement operation in Calabria and arrested numerous ndranghetisti including the murderers of Fortugno. The Ndrangheta has recently expanded its activities to Northern Italy, mainly to sell drugs, in May 2007 twenty members of Ndrangheta were arrested in Milan. On 30 August 2007, hundreds of police raided the town of San Luca, over 30 men and women, linked to the killing of six Italian men in Germany, were arrested. On 9 October 2012, following a long investigation by the central government the City Council of Reggio Calabria headed by Mayor Demetrio Arena was dissolved for alleged ties to the group
9.
Sacra Corona Unita
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Sacra Corona Unita, or United Sacred Crown, is a Mafia-type criminal organization from Apulia region in Southern Italy, and is especially active in the areas of Brindisi, Lecce and Taranto. The Sacra Corona Unita was founded in the late 1970s as the Nuova Grande Camorra Pugliese by Camorra boss Raffaele Cutolo, however, with Cutolos downfall a few years later the organization began operating separately under the leadership of Giuseppe Rogoli. The December 25th date was used by SCU leaders to underline the great importance of the legendary ceremony. Whatever the correct date may be, Giuseppe Rogoli will be remembered as the founder of Sacra Corona Unita, under his leadership the SCU mixed Apulian interests and opportunities with Ndrangheta and Camorra traditions. The SCU is made up of three groupings or levels. Members can graduate from one level to the next by going through riti battesimali, the religious symbolism is probably left over from the SCUs association with the Camorra. The lowest level, the Società Minore, is made up of criminals who do street-level activities. Members start out as picciotti and go through a 40-day trial to ensure they are suitable for work and are not associated with the police. They are then inducted into the phase of the level. The candidate must also swear an oath of devotion to SCU, the second level, the Società Maggiore, is made up of two positions. The Lo Sgarro position is only to members who have killed at least three people for SCU, and from now on members cannot leave, on pain of death. Members can now form their own crew of picciotti, known as a filiale. Upon indoctrination into the La Santa position the member is given a firearm, a pill, cotton, a lemon, a needle to puncture the index finger of the right hand, handkerchiefs. The final level is the Società Segreta, the core of the organization where key decisions are made, the Sacra Corona Unita consists of about 50 clans with approximately 2,000 members and specializes in smuggling cigarettes, drugs, arms, and people. The Sacra Corona Unita collects payoffs from other groups for landing rights on the southeast coast of Italy. This territory is a gateway for smuggling to and from countries such as Montenegro. Very few SCU members have been identified in the United States, however there are links to individuals in Illinois, Florida. The Sacra Corona Unita is also involved in laundering, extortion
10.
Organized crime
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Some criminal organizations, such as terrorist groups, are politically motivated. Sometimes criminal organizations force people to do business with them, such as when a gang extorts money from shopkeepers for so-called protection, gangs may become disciplined enough to be considered organized. A criminal organization or gang can also be referred to as a mafia, mob, or crime syndicate, European sociologists define the mafia as a type of organized crime group that specializes in the supply of extra-legal protection and quasi law enforcement. There is a tendency to distinguish organized crime from other forms of crime, such as crime, financial crimes, political crimes, war crime, state crimes. This distinction is not always apparent and academics continue to debate the matter, for example, in failed states that can no longer perform basic functions such as education, security, or governance, organised crime, governance and war sometimes complement each other. The term Oligarchy has been used to describe democratic countries whose political, social and economic institutions come under the control of a few families, in the United States, the Organized Crime Control Act defines organized crime as he unlawful activities of a highly organized, disciplined association. Criminal activity as a process is referred to as racketeering. In the UK, police estimate that organized crime involves up to 38,000 people operating in 6,000 various groups, bureaucratic/corporate organized crime groups are defined by the general rigidity of their internal structures. An estimate on youth street gangs nationwide provided by Hannigan, et al. marked an increase of 35% between 2002 and 2010, the term “street gang” is commonly used interchangeably with “youth gang, ” referring to neighborhood or street-based youth groups that meet “gang” criteria. Some reasons youth join gangs include to feel accepted, attain status, a sense of unity brings together many of the youth gangs that lack the family aspect at home. Zones of transition are deteriorating neighborhoods with shifting populations, in such areas, conflict between groups, fighting, turf wars, and theft promote solidarity and cohesion. Participation in gang-related events during adolescence perpetuate a pattern of maltreatment on their own children years later, klein like Spergel studied the effects on members of social workers’ interventions. More interventions actually lead to greater participation and solidarity and bonds between members. Downes and Rock on Parker’s analysis, strain theory applies, labeling theory, control theory and these may also be defined by age or peer group influences, and the permanence or consistency of their criminal activity. These groups also form their own identity or public representation which are recognizable by the community at large. Some studied street gangs involved in drug dealing - finding that their structure, members saw themselves as organized criminals, gangs were formal-rational organizations, Strong organizational structures, well defined roles and rules that guided members’ behavior. Also a specified and regular means of income, padilla agreed with the two above. However some have found these to be rather than well-defined and lacking persistent focus, there was relatively low cohesion, few shared goals
11.
Labour Day
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Labour Day is an annual holiday to celebrate the achievements of workers. Labour Day has its origins in the union movement, specifically the eight-hour day movement, which advocated eight hours for work, eight hours for recreation. For most countries, Labour Day is synonymous with, or linked with, International Workers Day, for other countries, Labour Day is celebrated on a different date, often one with special significance for the labour movement in that country. For most countries, Labour Day is synonymous with, or linked with, International Workers Day, some countries vary the actual date of their celebrations so that the holiday occurs on a Monday close to 1 May. The remainder of this article addresses those countries for whom Labour Day is not linked to International Workers Day and it is the first Monday in October in the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales and South Australia. In Victoria and Tasmania, it is the second Monday in March, in Western Australia, Labour Day is the first Monday in March. In the Northern Territory and Queensland it is called May Day and it is on the fourth Monday of March in the territory of Christmas Island. The first march for a day by the labour movement occurred in Melbourne on 21 April 1856. On this day stonemasons and building workers on building sites around Melbourne stopped work and their direct action protest was a success, and they are noted as being among the first organised workers in the world to achieve an 8-hour day, with no loss of pay. Labour Day is a holiday in the Bahamas, celebrated on the first Friday in June in order to create a long weekend for workers. The traditional date of Labour Day in the Bahamas, however, is 7 June, Labour Day is meant to honor and celebrate workers and the importance of their contributions to the nation and society. In the capital city, Nassau, thousands of people come to watch a parade through the streets, for many residents and visitors to the Bahamas, the afternoon of Labour Day is a time to relax at home or perhaps visit the beach. Labour Day has been celebrated in Canada on the first Monday in September since the 1880s, the origins of Labour Day in Canada can be traced back to December 1872 when a parade was staged in support of the Toronto Typographical Unions strike for a 58-hour work-week. The Toronto Trades Assembly called its 27 unions to demonstrate in support of the Typographical Union who had been on strike since 25 March. George Brown, Canadian politician and editor of the Toronto Globe hit back at his striking employees, Labour leaders decided to call another similar demonstration on 3 September to protest the arrests. Seven unions marched in Ottawa, prompting a promise by Canadian Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald to repeal the barbarous anti-union laws, Parliament passed the Trade Union Act on 14 June the following year, and soon all unions were seeking a 54-hour work-week. The Toronto Trades and Labour Council held similar celebrations every spring, American Peter J. McGuire, co-founder of the American Federation of Labor, was asked to speak at a labour festival in Toronto, Canada on 22 July 1882. Returning to the United States, McGuire and the Knights of Labor organised a parade based on the Canadian event on 5 September 1882 in New York City
12.
Salvatore Giuliano
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Salvatore Giuliano was a Sicilian bandit, who rose to prominence in the disorder which followed the Allied invasion of Sicily in 1943. He maintained a band of subordinates for most of his career and he was a flamboyant, high-profile criminal, attacking the police at least as often as they sought him. In addition, he was a local power-broker in Sicilian politics between 1945 and 1948, including his role as a colonel for the Movement for the Independence of Sicily. He and his band were held responsible for the Portella della Ginestra massacre. The widespread international press coverage he attracted made him an embarrassment to the Italian government and he was killed in 1950 amid convoluted circumstances. The historian Eric Hobsbawm described him as the last of the peoples bandits, Giuliano was born on 16 November 1922, in Montelepre, a rural village in western Sicily, the fourth and youngest child of Salvatore Giuliano, Sr. and Maria Lombardo. His parents were landed peasants who had spent some of their lives in the United States where they had earned the money to buy their farmland. Turi or Turridu – as he was known to him from his father – attended primary school in the village from the age of 10 to 13. Although he was a student, when his older brother Giuseppe was drafted into the Italian armed forces in 1935. He soon tired of the drudgery of work, hired a substitute from the village to take his place, and began trading in olive oil. Later in life he claimed that he quit school as much from youthful impulsiveness as from economic necessity, the outbreak of World War II brought him opportunities in the form of jobs installing road barriers and telephone infrastructure. He performed well, but was dismissed from both jobs after disputes with his bosses, at the time of the Allied Invasion of Sicily in July 1943, Giuliano was once again trading in olive oil. The most immediate trouble caused by the Allied invasion was the breakdown of government structures, especially in the cities, up to 70% of the food was supplied through the black market, including small-scale operators to large scale, well-financed and well-organized operations. With a horse brought home from the war by his brother, the Allied Military Government for Occupied Territories used the remnants of the previous fascist government, especially the Polizia and Carabinieri, to suppress the black market. Since their pay was irregular and most of their income was bribes from major black marketeers, on 2 September 1943, Giuliano was caught at a Carabinieri check point transporting two sacks of black market grain. While trying to negotiate his release in return for surrendering the grain, when one of the officers raised his weapon, Giuliano shot and killed him. He was shot in the back as he fled, after the escape and an operation arranged by his family, he hid out in the family home. On Christmas Eve 1943, the Carabinieri moved into Montelepre to apprehend Giuliano, the operation included mass arrests—a dragnet
13.
Portella della Ginestra massacre
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Those held responsible were the bandit and separatist leader Salvatore Giuliano and his band – although their motives and intentions are still a matter of controversy. The tradition was interrupted during the Fascist period and resumed after the fall of the Fascist regime, the People’s Block obtained 29.13 percent of the vote, while the Christian Democrat Party got 20. 52% and the Qualunquist and Monarchist came third and fourth. With national elections set for October 1947, the leftist win in Sicily created speculation that a coalition led by Palmiro Togliatti might bring Italy under Communist rule. In Sicily, the communist leader on Sicily, Girolamo Li Causi, pledged to redistribute large land holdings, at 10,15, the Communist party secretary from Piana degli Albanesi began to address the crowd when gunfire broke out. It was later determined that machine guns had fired from the surrounding hills. Eleven people were killed, including four children, Serafino Lascari, Giovanni Grifò, Giuseppe Di Maggio and Vincenzo La Fata, thirty-three people were wounded, including a little girl who had her jaw shot off. The attack was attributed to the bandit and separatist leader Salvatore Giuliano and his aim had been to punish local leftists for the recent election results. In an open letter he took responsibility for the murders and claimed that he had only wanted his men to fire above the heads of the crowd. Until the massacre, Giuliano had been regarded by many as a modern-day Robin Hood who stole from wealthy Sicilians to help the impoverished Sicilians. The shooting of children and peasants at Ginestra, however, outraged his former admirers, the massacre created a national scandal. The Communist-controlled Italian General Confederation of Labour called a strike in protest against the massacre. Bandits notoriously infested the valley in which it occurred, said Scelba, Li Causi disagreed and charged that the Mafia had perpetrated the attack, in cahoots with the large landowners, monarchists and the rightist Uomo Qualunque Front. The debate ended in a fist fight between the left and the right, nearly 200 deputies took part in the brawl. While Scelba dismissed any political motive, Li Causi stressed the nature of the massacre –. Later documents would prove the accusation, speaking at Portella della Ginestra on the second anniversary of the massacre, Li Causi publicly called on Giuliano to name names. He received a reply from the bandit leader, It is only men with no shame who gives out names. Not a man who tends to take justice into his own hands, who aims to keep his reputation in society high, Li Causi responded by reminding Giuliano that he would almost certainly be betrayed, Don’t you understand that Scelba will have you killed. Giuliano again replied, hinting at the powerful secrets that he possessed, I know that Scelba wants to have me killed, I can make sure he is brought to account for actions that, if revealed, would destroy his political career and end his life
14.
Italian Communist Party
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The Italian Communist Party was a communist political party in Italy. The PCI was founded as Communist Party of Italy on 21 January 1921 in Livorno, Amadeo Bordiga and Antonio Gramsci led the split. Outlawed during the Fascist regime, the party played a part in the Italian resistance movement. It changed its name in 1943 to PCI and became the second largest political party of Italy after World War II, at the time it was the largest communist party in the West. The more radical members of the party left to form the Communist Refoundation Party, the PCI participated to its first general election in 1921, obtaining 4. 6% of the vote and 15 seats in the Chamber of Deputies. In 1926, the Fascist government of Benito Mussolini outlawed the PCI, although forced underground, the PCI maintained a clandestine presence within Italy during the years of the Fascist regime. Many of its leaders were also active in exile, during its first year as a banned party, Antonio Gramsci defeated the partys left wing, led by Amadeo Bordiga. Gramsci replaced Bordigas leadership at a conference in Lyon, and issued a manifesto expressing the programmatic basis of the party, however, Gramsci soon found himself jailed by Mussolinis regime, and the leadership of the party passed to Palmiro Togliatti. Togliatti would lead the party until it emerged from suppression in 1944, the communists contribution to the new Italian democratic constitution was decisive. The Gullo decrees of 1944, for instance, sought to improve social, in the first general elections of 1948 the party joined the PSI in the Popular Democratic Front, but was defeated by the Christian Democracy party. The party gained considerable success during the following years and occasionally supplied external support to centre-left governments. It successfully lobbied Fiat to set up the AvtoVAZ car factory in the Soviet Union, the party did best in Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany and Umbria, where it regularly won the local administrative elections, and in some of the industrialized cities of Northern Italy. At the city government level during the course of the period, the PCI demonstrated their capacity for uncorrupt, efficient. After the elections of 1975, the PCI was the strongest force in all of the municipal councils of the great cities. The PCIs municipal showcase was Bologna, which was held continuously by the PCI from 1945 onwards, from 1946 to 1956, the Communist city council built 31 nursery schools,896 flats, and 9 schools. Health care improved substantially, street lighting was installed, new drains and municipal launderettes were built, in 1972, the then-mayor of Bologna, Renato Zangheri, introduced a new and innovative traffic plan with strict limitations for private vehicles and a renewed concentration on cheap public transport. Bolognas social services continued to expand throughout the early and mid-Seventies, communists administrations at a local level also helped to aid new businesses while also introducing innovative social reforms. The Soviet Unions brutal suppression of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 created a split within the PCI, the party leadership, including Palmiro Togliatti and Giorgio Napolitano, regarded the Hungarian insurgents as counter-revolutionaries, as reported at the time in lUnità, the official PCI newspaper
15.
Mario Scelba
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Mario Scelba was an Italian Christian Democratic politician who served as the 33rd Prime Minister of Italy from February 1954 to July 1955. He was also President of the European Parliament from 1969 to 1971, Scelba was born in Caltagirone, Sicily, the son of a poor sharecropper on land owned by the priest Don Luigi Sturzo, one of the founders of the Italian Peoples Party. He studied law and graduated at the University of Rome, Scelba was Sturzos godchild and protégé. Sturzo paid for his law studies in Rome and employed him as his private secretary, when the Fascists suppressed the PPI and forced Sturzo into exile, Scelba remained in Rome as his agent. He wrote for the underground paper Il Popolo during World War II, arrested by the Germans, he was released within three days as a worthless catch. On the day of Romes liberation by the Allied forces, he joined the new five-man national directorate of the Christian Democracy, the Christian Democrats started organising post-Fascist Italy in competition with, but also for a time in coalition with, the parties of the centre and left. On February 2,1947, Scelba became Minister of the Interior in the government of Premier Alcide de Gasperi, remaining, with some brief interludes. The short, bald, plump, oddly-impressive Scelba was probably the most powerful man in the governments of De Gasperi. As Minister, his hard-fisted record earned him the nickname Iron Sicilian for his ruthless suppression of left-wing workers protests and strikes, when he first took over, the police were so shoddy that Scelba exclaimed, If I were Communist, Id start a revolution tomorrow. He wrote the so-called Scelba law, formally banning Fascism, Scelba built the countrys dishevelled police into a force of some 200,000, heavily armed and equipped with armoured cars and special jeep-riding riot squads called the Reparto Celere. He made himself known as a man of action against what he considered Communist disorder, in doing so, Scelba made himself many enemies, including many democrats who disapproved his harsh methods. His short, stubby figure and broad eye-twinkling smile was popular with political cartoonists, Scelba had a conservative attitude toward certain issues such as scant bathing suits, public kissing and nude statues. Despite this and his concern for law and order, on socio-economic issues Scelba leaned left of centre in the Democrazia Cristiana. He favoured more social reforms and public works, attacking speculators for pushing up prices and it is virtually impossible, he once said, to be Minister of Interior for a government that doesnt care if the people work or not. Scelba emphasized the possibility of undermining Communist strength by determined measures of social and economic improvement – land reform of the great latifundias in south Italy, after just three months in office as Minister of the Interior, Scelba was confronted with the Portella della Ginestra massacre. The attack was attributed to the bandit and separatist leader Salvatore Giuliano, Scelba reported to Parliament the next day that so far as the police could determine, the Portella della Ginestra shooting was non-political. He claimed that bandits notoriously infested the valley in which it occurred, however, that version was challenged by the left. Later documents would substantiate the accusation, the trial of those responsible was held in the city of Viterbo, starting in the summer of 1950
16.
Ferruccio Parri
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Ferruccio Parri was an Italian partisan and politician who served as the 29th Prime Minister of Italy for several months in 1945. During the resistance he was known as Maurizio, Parri was born in Pinerolo, Piedmont. A soldier during World War I, he was wounded four times and he studied literature and after the war he was a journalist with the Corriere della Sera. He became active against Benito Mussolinis Fascist regime and joined Carlo and Nello Rossellis group Giustizia e Libertà, in 1926 he was involved in the escape of the reformist socialist leader Filippo Turati, together with Carlo Rosselli and Sandro Pertini. He was sentenced to 10 months in prison and he was arrested several times and banished to the islands Ustica and Lipari. In 1930 he was banished for five years together with other leaders of Giustizia e Libertà. He was also president of the Comitato di Liberazione Nazionale, in January 1945 Parri was arrested in Milan. He was released in March 1945 in Lugano as part of Operation Sunrise – a series of negotiations between Allen Dulles, head of the U. S. The release of Parri was requested from the Germans as an evidence of good faith and he returned in time to take part in the conclusive phase of the resistance and in the uprising in April. A middle-of-the-road man, he had chosen as the compromise leader of a compromise Cabinet. He was also the Minister of the Interior, when the Liberals withdrew their support from the coalition government, Parri resigned from his position. At the time Parri warned, Beware of civil war, of reopening the door to fascism. There are rumors that Washington and London have no trust in me, the real reason for this lack of trust is that Italy has only a fragile front of antifascism. I hope my successors will follow the only worthy policy for Italy, the Action Party quickly faded from the Italian political scene. Parri founded, together with Ugo La Malfa, the movement Concentrazione Democratica, in 1953 he left the latter party to create the short-lived Unità Popolare with Piero Calamandrei. In 1957, the party merged into the Italian Socialist Party, in 1946, he was elected to the Italian Italian Constituent Assembly and in 1948 to the Italian Senate. In 1958 he was elected in the Senate on the list of the PSI, Parri proposed to form a Parliamentary Antimafia Commission to investigate the Sicilian Mafia. However, in 1962 a Commission was formed to deal with the issue, in 1963, President Giuseppe Saragat appointed Parri senator for life
17.
Christian Democracy (Italy)
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Christian Democracy was a Christian democratic political party in Italy. The DC was founded in 1943 as the successor of the Italian Peoples Party, which had the same symbol. The party was nicknamed the White Whale, from 1946 until 1994 the DC was the largest party in Parliament, governing in successive coalitions. It originally supported governments based on political positions, before moving to centre-left coalitions. The party was succeeded by a string of parties, including the Italian Peoples Party, the Christian Democratic Centre, the United Christian Democrats. Former Christian Democrats are also spread among other parties, including the centre-right Forza Italia and the New Centre-Right, the DC was a founding member of the European Peoples Party in 1976. The party was founded as the revival of the Italian Peoples Party, a party created in 1919 by Luigi Sturzo. In December 1945 Christian Democrat Alcide De Gasperi was appointed Prime Minister of Italy, in the 1946 general election the DC won 35. 2% of the vote. In May 1947 De Gasperi broke decisively with his Communist and Socialist coalition partners under pressure from U. S. President Harry Truman. This opened the way for a centrist coalition that included the Italian Workers Socialist Party, a centrist break-away from the PSI, as well as its allies, the PLI. In the 1948 general election the DC went on to win a victory, with the support of the Catholic Church and the United States. Under De Gasperi, major reforms were carried out in the poorer rural regions in the early postwar years, with farms appropriated from the large landowners. De Gasperi served as Prime Minister until 1953 and would die a year later. No Christian Democrat would match his longevity in office and, despite the fact that DCs share of vote was always between 38 and 43% from 1953 to 1979, the party was more and more fractious, as a result, Prime Ministers changed more frequently. From 1954 the DC was led by progressive Christian Democrats, such as Amintore Fanfani, Aldo Moro and Benigno Zaccagnini, supported by the influential left-wing factions. In 1963 the party, under Prime Minister Aldo Moro, formed a coalition with the PSI, which returned to ministerial roles after 16 years, the PSDI, similar Organic Centre-left governments became usual through the 1960s and the 1970s. From 1976 to 1979 the DC governed with the support of the PCI. Moro, who was the party leader and who had inspired the Compromise, was abducted and murdered by the Red Brigades
18.
Bernardo Mattarella
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Bernardo Mattarella was an Italian politician for the Christian Democrat party. He has been Minister of Italy several times, Bernardo Mattarella was born in Castellammare del Golfo, in the province of Trapani in western Sicily as the eldest of seven children in a family of humble origins. In 1924, he became the secretary of the Italian Peoples Party, an anti-fascist, he graduated in law in Palermo, where he lived until the Allied invasion of Sicily. He moved to Rome, where he took part in the founding of the DC in May 1943 with Alcide De Gasperi and he held the position of Deputy Minister for Public Education in the governments led by Ivanoe Bonomi. In the June 1946 he was elected to the Italian Constituent Assembly and he would be re-elected in 1953,1958,1963 and 1968. In 1953, after having been Minister of the Merchant Navy under De Gasperis short-lived government, he became Minister of Transportation, later he was Minister of Foreign Trade and Minister of Post and Communications. A favourable evalutation of his work as the Minister of Foreign Trade and of Post, in 1962 he was again Minister of Transportation and, in the following year, of Agriculture and Forests. In 1963–66 he was again Minister of Foreign Trades, Bernardo Mattarella was the main opponent of the Sicilian separatism, which had some influence in the years following the end of World War II. Mattarella has been accused several times of having links with the Mafia and these accusations were always rejected in court. The alleged links between Mattarella and the Mafia are described in reports and books. He was accused of having approached Calogero Vizzini, supposedly the most influential Mafia boss at the time to abandon the Sicilian separatists and join the Christian Democrats. The accusation was made by the Italian communists on the basis of an article that Mattarella published on the national Christian democrat newspaper, Il Popolo and this article does not contain any invitation neither to Vizzini nor to the Mafia to join the Christian Democrats. On the contrary, the article accused two families of the town of Villalba of being responsible of the violence in that town, the article was addressed to those who had voted for the separatists, which were invited to change their vote. Mattarella supported Vito Ciancimino – the first Italian politician to be guilty of Mafia membership. Ciancimino became a protégé of Mattarella, who supported his political and financial career, in 1950 Ciancimino obtained concessions for all railway transport inside Palermo. The three other firms that had made a bid were put out of the game, because Cianciminos bid was accompanied by a letter of Mattarella, who was then Minister of Transports. He was accused of being one of the men behind the Portella della Ginestra massacre, the bloodbath was perpetrated by the bandit Salvatore Giuliano who was possibly backed by the Mafia. It was Marchesano, Prince Alliata and Bernardo Mattarella who ordered the massacre of Portella di Ginestra, before the massacre they met Giuliano
19.
Palermo
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Palermo is a city of Southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence, Palermo is located in the northwest of the island of Sicily, right by the Gulf of Palermo in the Tyrrhenian Sea. The city was founded in 734 BC by the Phoenicians as Ziz, Palermo then became a possession of Carthage, before becoming part of the Roman Republic, the Roman Empire and eventually part of the Byzantine Empire, for over a thousand years. The Greeks named the city Panormus meaning complete port, from 831 to 1072 the city was under Arab rule during the Emirate of Sicily when the city first became a capital. The Arabs shifted the Greek name into Balarme, the root for Palermos present-day name, eventually Sicily would be united with the Kingdom of Naples to form the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies until the Italian unification of 1860. The population of Palermo urban area is estimated by Eurostat to be 855,285, in the central area, the city has a population of around 676,000 people. The inhabitants are known as Palermitani or, poetically, panormiti, the languages spoken by its inhabitants are the Italian language, Sicilian language and the Palermitano dialect. Palermo is Sicilys cultural, economic and touristic capital and it is a city rich in history, culture, art, music and food. Palermo is the main Sicilian industrial and commercial center, the industrial sectors include tourism, services, commerce. Palermo currently has an airport, and a significant underground economy. In fact, for cultural, artistic and economic reasons, Palermo was one of the largest cities in the Mediterranean and is now among the top tourist destinations in both Italy and Europe. It is the seat of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Arab-Norman Palermo. The city is going through careful redevelopment, preparing to become one of the major cities of the Euro-Mediterranean area. Roman Catholicism is highly important in Palermitano culture, the Patron Saint of Palermo is Santa Rosalia whose Feast Day is celebrated on 15 July. The area attracts significant numbers of each year and is widely known for its colourful fruit, vegetable and fish markets at the heart of Palermo, known as Vucciria, Ballarò. Palermo lies in a basin, formed by the Papireto, Kemonia, the basin was named the Conca dOro by the Arabs in the 9th century. The city is surrounded by a range which is named after the city itself. These mountains face the Tyrrhenian Sea, Palermo is home to a natural port and offers excellent views to the sea, especially from Monte Pellegrino
20.
Ciaculli bombing
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The bomb was intended for Salvatore Ciaschiteddu Greco, head of the Sicilian Mafia Commission and the boss of the Ciaculli Mafia family. Mafia boss Pietro Torretta was considered to be the man behind the bomb attack, the ferocity of the struggle was unprecedented, reaping 68 victims from 1961 to 1963. A relationship developed between mafiosi and a new generation of politicians of the Christian Democratic Party such as Salvo Lima, Lima was connected to Angelo La Barbera, Tommaso Buscetta and the leading construction entrepreneur Francesco Vassallo. The period 1958-1964, when Lima was mayor of Palermo and Ciancimino was assessor for public works, was referred to as the Sack of Palermo. In five years,4,000 building licences were signed, the construction boom led to the destruction of the citys green belt, and distinctive villas were replaced by apartment blocks. The Mafia war was sparked by a quarrel over a lost heroin shipment, the Grecos suspected the brothers Angelo and Salvatore La Barbera of the attack. The Ciaculli massacre changed the Mafia war into a war against the Mafia and it prompted the first concerted anti-mafia efforts by the state in post-war Italy. Within a period of ten weeks 1,200 mafiosi were arrested, the Sicilian Mafia Commission was dissolved and of those mafiosi who had escaped arrest – among them Tommaso Buscetta – many went to the United States, Canada, Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela. Salvatore Chichiteddu Greco fled to Caracas in Venezuela, the atrocity galvanized the Italian Parliament into implementing a law passed in December 1962 for the constitution of an Antimafia Commission which met for the first time on July 6,1963. Its final report was submitted in 1976, according to Tommaso Buscetta – after he became a cooperating witness in 1984 – it was Michele Cavataio, the boss of the Acquasanta quarter of Palermo, who was responsible for the Ciaculli bomb. Cavataio had lost out to the Greco Mafia clan in a war of the market in the mid 1950s. Cavataio killed Di Pisa in the knowledge that the La Barbera’s would be blamed by the Greco’s and he kept fuelling the war through other bomb attacks and killings. Cavataio was backed by other Mafia families who resented the power of the Sicilian Mafia Commission to the detriment of individual Mafia families. The attack is known as the Viale Lazio massacre, several top Mafia bosses had decided to eliminate Cavataio on the instigation of Salvatore Ciaschiteddu Greco. Greco had come to subscribe to Buscetta’s theory about how the First Mafia War began, the Viale Lazio bloodbath marked the end of a ‘pax mafiosa’ that had reigned since the Ciaculli massacre. List of massacres in Italy List of victims of the Sicilian Mafia Dickie, a history of the Sicilian Mafia, London, Coronet ISBN 0-340-82435-2 Jamieson, Alison. The Antimafia, Italy’s fight against organized crime, London, Macmillan, Schneider, Jane T. & Peter T. Schneider. Reversible Destiny, Mafia, Antimafia, and the Struggle for Palermo, Berkeley, University of California Press ISBN 0-520-23609-2 Servadio, a history of the Mafia from its origins to the present day, London, Secker & Warburg ISBN 0-440-55104-8 Stille, Alexander
21.
Italian Democratic Socialist Party
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The Italian Democratic Socialist Party was a minor social-democratic political party in Italy. The PSDI, before the 1990s decline in votes and members, had been an important force in Italian politics, the partys founder and longstanding leader was Giuseppe Saragat, who served as President of the Italian Republic from 1964 to 1971. The split, led by Giuseppe Saragat and the sons of Giacomo Matteotti, in 1952, the party ultimately became the Italian Democratic Socialist Party, after joining forces with the smaller Unitary Socialist Party in 1951. From 1949 to 1965 members of the PSDI held the presidency of the Istituto Nazionale di Previdenza Sociale. In 1963 the party joined the PSI to form the Unified Socialist Party, in 1980 the party joined Christian Democracy, the Italian Socialist Party, the Italian Republican Party and the Italian Liberal Party in the five-party coalition which ruled the country until 1994. However the partys role in the coalition was minimal and was over-shadowed by the more powerful PSI, the PSDI was a member of Socialist International and a founder member of the Party of European Socialists. Its members of the European Parliament thus sat within the Socialist Group since 1979, in 1994 the party was expelled from the PES. The PSDI was involved in the corruption scandals known as Tangentopoli, the 1994 general election resulted in an almost overnight decline of the Pentapartito coalition parties and the rise of Silvio Berlusconi-led Forza Italia, which absorbed many PSDI voters. In January 1995 Gian Franco Schietroma was elected secretary of the party replacing Enrico Ferri. The followers of Ferri left and established the European Liberal Social Democracy, in 1998 the party, led by Schietroma, finally merged with the Italian Socialists, one of the successor parties of the PSI, to form the Italian Democratic Socialists. By then most members and voters of the party have joined other parties, Forza Italia, the PSDI had its best result at its first appearance in the 1948 general election, when it gained 7. 1% of the vote. The PSDI found its heartlands in Northern Italy,12. 9% in the Province of Torino,11. 9% in Cuneo,10. 6% in Milan,13. 9% in Sondrio,12. 6% in Treviso,15. 9% in Belluno, and 14. 9% in Udine. From 1953 to 1987 the partys support was around 4-5%, with the exception of 1963. In the 1992 general election, the last before Tangentopoli, the PSDI won just 2. 7%, the party maintained for decades its strongholds in the North-West and North-East, but since the 1960s it started to gain support in Southern Italy. By 1987 the partys strongholds had moved South, especially Apulia, Campania, Basilicata, Calabria and this was partly due to the growth of regionalist parties in the North. After Tangentopoli, Mani pulite and subsequent political crisis, the PSDI has almost disappeared electorally, although it retains some support locally in the South, especially in Apulia
22.
Legislature
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A legislature is a deliberative assembly with the authority to make laws for a political entity such as a country or city. Legislatures form important parts of most governments, in the separation of model, they are often contrasted with the executive. Laws enacted by legislatures are known as legislation, legislatures observe and steer governing actions and usually have exclusive authority to amend the budget or budgets involved in the process. The members of a legislature are called legislators, each chamber of legislature consists of a number of legislators who use some form of parliamentary procedure to debate political issues and vote on proposed legislation. There must be a number of legislators present to carry out these activities. Some of the responsibilities of a legislature, such as giving first consideration to newly proposed legislation, are delegated to committees made up of small selections of the legislators. The members of a legislature usually represent different political parties, the members from each party generally meet as a caucus to organize their internal affairs, the internal organization of a legislature is also shaped by the informal norms that are shared by its members. Legislatures vary widely in the amount of power they wield, compared to other political players such as judiciaries, militaries. In 2009, political scientists M. Steven Fish and Matthew Kroenig constructed a Parliamentary Powers Index in an attempt to quantify the different degrees of power among national legislatures, such a system renders the legislature more powerful. Legislatures will sometime delegate their legislative power to administrative or executive agencies, legislatures are made up of individual members, known as legislators, who vote on proposed laws. For example, a legislature that has 100 seats has 100 members, by extension, an electoral district that elects a single legislator can also be described as a seat, as, for, example, in the phrases safe seat and marginal seat. In parliamentary systems of government, the executive is responsible to the legislature which may remove it with a vote of no confidence, names for national legislatures include parliament, congress, diet and assembly. A legislature which operates as a unit is unicameral, one divided into two chambers is bicameral, and one divided into three chambers is tricameral. In bicameral legislatures, one chamber is considered the upper house. In federations, the upper house typically represents the component states. This is a case with the legislature of the European Union. Tricameral legislatures are rare, the Massachusetts Governors Council still exists, tetracameral legislatures no longer exist, but they were previously used in Scandinavia. Legislatures vary widely in their size, among national legislatures, Chinas National Peoples Congress is the largest with 2987 members, while Vatican Citys Pontifical Commission is the smallest with 7
23.
Sicilian Mafia Commission
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It is composed of representatives of a mandamento that are called capo mandamento or rappresentante. The Commission is not a government of the Mafia, but a representative mechanism for consultation of independent Mafia families who decide by consensus. Contrary to the image presented by the media, these superordinate bodies of coordination cannot be compared with the executive boards of major legal firms. Their power is limited it would be entirely wrong to see in the Cosa Nostra a centrally managed, internationally active Mafia holding company. The jurisdiction extends over a province, each province of Sicily has some kind of a Commission, except Messina, Siracusa and Ragusa. Initially the idea was that the bosses would not sit on the Commission. However, that rule was not obeyed from the start, only later did its function expand to the regulation of the activities of all families in a province. The first time the existence of such a Commission filtered out to the rest of the world was in 1965 during the inquiry into the First Mafia War by judge Cesare Terranova. Judge Terranova did not believe that the existence of a commission meant that the Mafia was a unified structure. In 1973, Leonardo Vitale – a lower-level Mafioso – revealed the existence of the Commission, the existence of the Commission was first established by a court of law during the Maxi Trial in 1986-87. It was Tommaso Buscetta who definitively revealed the existence and workings of the Commission, the existence and functioning of the Commission was confirmed by the first degree conviction. This premise became known as the Buscetta theorem and that vision of Cosa Nostra was not immediately recognized. Carnevale’s view prevailed at the appeal of the Maxi Trial, in the meantime, the Antimafia Pool of Palermo was dismantled and judge Rocco Chinnici had been murdered in 1983. Many Mafia bosses were condemned to life in prison and Cosa Nostra reacted furiously, the Mafia had counted on the politicians Salvo Lima and Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti to appoint Corrado Carnevale to review the sentence. Carnevale had overturned many Mafia convictions on the slenderest of technicalities previously, Carnevale, however, had to withdraw due to pressure from the public and from Giovanni Falcone – who at the time had moved to the ministry of Justice. Falcone was backed by the minister of Justice Claudio Martelli despite the fact that he served under Prime Minister Andreotti, in March 1992, Lima was killed, followed by Falcone and Paolo Borsellino later that year. Beyond the provincial level details are vague, the rappresentante regionale in those days was a certain Andrea Fazio from Trapani. The Interprovincional or Regional Commission was probably set up in February 1975 on the instigation of Giuseppe Calderone from Catania who became its first secretary, the other members were Gaetano Badalamenti for Palermo, Giuseppe Settecasi, Cola Buccelato, Angelo Mongiovì and Giuseppe Di Cristina
24.
Tommaso Buscetta
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Tommaso Buscetta was a Sicilian mafioso. He was the first Mafia boss to turn informant, and explain the workings of the organisation. He was the youngest of 17 children raised in a area of Palermo. He first became involved with the Mafia in 1945 and in the years he became a full-fledged member of the Porta Nuova Family. His first work was mostly smuggling cigarettes, after the Ciaculli Massacre in 1963, Buscetta fled to the United States where the local Gambino crime family helped him to get started in the pizza business. In 1968, Buscetta was convicted of murder, but the conviction was in absentia as he was not actually in custody. In 1970 Buscetta was arrested in New York, because Italian authorities did not ask for his extradition he was released. Buscetta moved on to Brazil where he set up a drug trafficking network, in 1972 Buscetta was arrested and tortured by the Brazilian military regime, and subsequently extradited to Italy where he began a life sentence for the earlier double murder conviction. Arrested once more in 1983, Buscetta was sent back to Italy and he attempted suicide, and when that failed, he decided that he was utterly disillusioned with the Mafia. Buscetta asked to talk to Giovanni Falcone and began his life as an informant, in Italy he helped the judges Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino to achieve significant successes in the fight against organized crime. He was the witness in the Maxi Trial that led to almost 350 Mafia members being sent to prison. Buscetta revealed the existence and workings of the Sicilian Mafia Commission and this premise became known as the Buscetta theorem and would be recognised legally with the confirmation of the Maxi Trial sentence in January 1992. His testimony in the New York Pizza Connection Trial in the mid-1980s allowed the conviction of hundreds of mobsters in Italy, as a reward for his help, Buscetta was allowed to live in the United States under a new identity in the Witness Protection Program. He was reported to have plastic surgery to conceal his identity. He sometimes gave interviews to journalists although his face was pixelated when he appeared in documentaries. In an interview with the Italian journalist Enzo Biagi, Buscetta cheerfully bragged that he lost his virginity at the age of eight to a prostitute who charged him just a bottle of olive oil. While in prison in the seventies, he learned that his boss wanted to him from the organisation altogether for the treatment of his wives. Judges and policemen found Buscetta to be polite and intelligent
25.
Luciano Leggio
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Luciano Leggio was an Italian criminal and leading figure of the Sicilian Mafia. He was the head of the Corleonesi, the Mafia faction that originated in the town of Corleone, some sources incorrectly spell his surname Liggio, a result of a misspelling in court documents in the 1960s. Leggio was one of ten children raised in poverty on a small farm. He turned to crime in his teens and his first conviction was when he was aged 18 for stealing corn, as soon as he completed a six-month sentence for this crime, he murdered the man who had reported him to the police. In 1945 he was recruited by the Mafia boss of Corleone, Michele Navarra, to work as an enforcer and hitman. That same year Leggio shot dead a farm-hand in order to take his job, while behind bars in the late 1940s he met Salvatore Riina, who was then aged 19 and starting a six-year sentence for manslaughter. The two eventually became accomplices in crime after Riinas release, as did another young local criminal, on 10 March 1948, trade unionist Placido Rizzotto was kidnapped by three men in broad daylight, with a number of witnesses claiming Leggio was one of them. The following year two men confessed to helping Leggio kidnap Rizzotto, who shot the victim and dumped him in a 15-metre-deep cavern, the two alleged accomplices were eventually killed. He was tried twice in absentia of the trade unionists murder, many pentiti have described Leggio as being highly volatile and violent, as well as possessing a streak of vanity. Leggio apparently liked to be called The Professor, as if he were an intellectual, even though, like many of his fellow Corleonesi, Leggio left school at the age of nine and was illiterate until well into adulthood. He also tended to wear tailored suits at his repeated court appearances, often along with sunglasses. Leggio soon began to build his own faction of mobsters loyal to him alone, including Riina and Provenzano, one evening in June 1958 Leggio was walking across a field when some of Navarras men opened fire on him. He escaped with just an injury to his hand. A couple of later, on 2 August Leggio, Riina, Provenzano. Michele Navarra soon drove round the corner and the gunmen opened fire, Navarra died instantly along with a friend, he was giving a lift to another doctor, Giovanni Russo. Leggio proclaimed himself boss of Corleone and over the five years he and his men hunted down. Leggio and his faction emerged victorious, and he took his place on the Sicilian Mafia Commission. Leggio spent the 1960s and early 1970s increasing the strength of the Corleonesi, in particular, he wanted control of the refining and trafficking of heroin that soon provided a huge source of income to the Sicilian Mafia
26.
Cesare Terranova
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Cesare Terranova was an Italian judge and politician from Sicily notable for his anti-Mafia stance. From 1958 until 1971 Terranova was a magistrate at the Palermo prosecuting office. He was one of the first to investigate the Mafia. He was killed by the Mafia in 1979, Cesare Terranova can be considered the predecessor of the magistrates Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino who were also killed by the Mafia in 1992. Cesare Terranova was born on 25 August 1921, in Petralia Soprana and he entered the judiciary in 1946. In 1958 he became the head of the Examining Office at the Palermo Court, at the time the prosecution was separated in an examining phase and a prosecuting phase. Terranova helped bring numerous Mafiosi to trial and subsequent imprisonment. He was a key figure in the Trial of the 114 which saw many prominent Mafiosi on trial for their role in the First Mafia War in the early 1960s that ended with the Ciaculli massacre on June 30,1963. On 31 May 1965, he ordered the prosecution of 114 mafiosi, however, despite Terranova’s efforts, the sentence of the Trial of the 114 on 22 December 1968, by the Court of Catanzaro was a disappointment and many prominent mafiosi were acquitted. All but 10 of the 114 defendants were acquitted, Terranova was the first to acknowledge the existence of a Sicilian Mafia Commission. Judge Terranova did not believe that the existence of a commission meant that the Mafia was a unified structure. Terranova also led investigations into the connections between the Mafia and politics and he looked into the exploits of the prominent Sicilian politician Salvatore Lima as mayor of Palermo and concluded that Lima was in league with a number of Mafiosi, including Angelo La Barbera. In an indictment in 1964, Terranova wrote, it is clear that Angelo, knew former mayor Salvatore Lima and maintained relations in such a way as to ask for favours. The undeniable contacts of the La Barbera mafiosi with the one who was the first citizen of Palermo, the infiltration of the Mafia in several sectors of public life. However, nothing came of his enquiries or allegations, Terranova made little attempt to hide the fact that his ambition was to bring Luciano Leggio, the boss of the Corleone Mafia Family – known as the Corleonesi – to justice. In 1965 Terranova ordered the prosecution of over sixty Corleonesi, including Leggio, the most prominent victim had been the Mafia-boss of Corleone, Michele Navarra. However, the sentence of the Bari Court on 10 June 1969 resulted in acquittals for all the 64 defendants, the judges and prosecutors received anonymous letters threatening them with death. Salvatore Riina – Leggios eventual successor – was acquitted in 1969, the Corleonesi were also indicted in the Trial of the 114 related to the First Mafia War that resulted in the Ciaculli Massacre, that was also prepared by Terranova
27.
1960s Sicilian Mafia trials
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The 1960s Sicilian Mafia trials took place at the end of that decade in response to a rise in organized crime violence around the late 1950s and early 1960s. There were three trials, each featuring multiple defendants, that saw hundreds of alleged Mafiosi on trial for dozens of crimes. Emanuele Notarbartolo was stabbed to death on a train in 1893, a number of suspected Mafiosi were rounded up and tried in 1900 of the murder, and though convicted they were acquitted on appeal due to a minor technicality. In the late 1950s, there was an increase in violence around the town of Corleone as rival factions in the local Mafia clan, the group around Michele Navarra and the Corleonesi, battled it out. More significantly there were a wave of murders and car bombings in, the death of the policemen caused an outcry. Torture them and see what they let out, or shoot them on sight, but we cant go on like this. It took many trials to process the accused, including three major ones, the first trial opened in 1967 and concentrated on the growing involvement of the Sicilian Mafia in the international heroin trade. Specifically, the defendants were all those who had been at a series of meetings in October 1957 between American and Sicilian Mafiosi at the Grand Hotel Des Palmes in Palermo. The meeting was about heroin, with the Americans apparently not keen on getting too involved in due to the lengthy sentences for trafficking. At the time, authorities did not know of the decision the two came to, but they were aware it concerned trafficking heroin. Amongst the defendants were Gaetano Badalamenti, Tommaso Buscetta and Giuseppe Genco Russo, charles Lucky Luciano, who was the principal organizer of the meeting, would have stood trial but he had since died of natural causes. The prosecutors did not have a deal of evidence at the trial, principally relying on information from Joseph Valachi. As a low-level mobster, Valachi was not at the Grand Hotel Des Palmes meeting, but he was aware of the heroin trade. The police had also put those at the meeting under surveillance at the time, the evidence was still thin on the ground and at the conclusion of the trial in August 1968 every single defendant was acquitted. Overlapping the above trial was the Trial of the 114, so-called because it featured 114 defendants. This trial took place in Catanzaro on the Italian mainland, partly due to there being no facilities for such a trial in Sicily. The defendants were accused of crimes relating to the First Mafia War, also there were Giuseppe Calò and Luciano Leggio. The trial opened in December 1967 and lasted until December 22,1968 and it resulted in a mere ten convictions, with several of those being just for Organized Delinquency
28.
Pio La Torre
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Pio La Torre was a leader of the Italian Communist Party. La Torre was born in Rocca Tagliata in the outskirts of Palermo as the son of peasants and he paid his studies as a construction worker. In 1948 La Torre replaced peasant leader Placido Rizzotto in Corleone who was killed by the Mafia of Luciano Leggio, in March 1950 the young student La Torre was arrested in Bisacquino while leading the fight of peasants for land reform through occupations of large estates. He spent 18 months in jail in preventive custody before being released, in 1960 he became a member of the Central Committee of the PCI, and in 1962 he was elected as the regional secretary of the party for Sicily. La Torre was elected in the Italian Chamber of Deputies for the district of Palermo in May 1972 and he was re-elected twice and remained a deputy until he was killed by the Mafia on April 30,1982. La Torre became a member of the Antimafia Commission, formed in 1962 during the First Mafia War, La Torre, together with judge Cesare Terranova, wrote a minority report, which pointed to links between the Mafia and prominent politicians in particular of the Christian Democrat party. With the inclusion of the conspiracy in article 416 bis of the Italian Penal Code. In spite of its obvious danger, mafia conspiracy had not been recognized by the Penal Code as a criminal phenomenon, as a result, many judges had not considered the Mafia a criminal association. In 1981 La Torre requested of the party that he be sent back to Sicily where he became the secretary of the PCI. He also became part of the movement against the deployment of Ground Launched Cruise Missiles by the United States at Comiso Air Base. The missiles were stationed in June 1983, but were dismantled after the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty was signed by the former Soviet Union, the last 16 GLCMs left the Comiso Air Base in 1991. On April 30,1982, La Torre and his driver Rosario Di Salvo were shot in a hail of bullets near the Communist Partys headquarters in Palermo and their car was trapped in a one-way street blocked by the killers car. Di Salvo returned the fire with a. 38-caliber pistol before he was killed, the hit team was composed of Pino Greco, Giuseppe Lucchese, Nino Madonia, Mario Prestifilippo and Salvatore Cucuzza. La Torre was sentenced to death by the Sicilian Mafia Commission because of his endeavour against the Mafia, the day after General Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa was appointed as prefect for Palermo to stop the violence of the Second Mafia War. La Torres law was approved only after Dalla Chiesa was murdered as well on September 3,1982 and that compelled Parliament to adopt the law La Torre initiated in a rush together with other emergency measures against the Mafia. Instead of just participating in Mafia activities, being associated with the Mafia in any way was a criminal offense, organized crime of the mafia type presents additional specific characteristics, the associative bond has such an intimidating capacity to cause subjection and omertà. An actual submission to the power of the mafia, the new Law was used by judge Giovanni Falcone to prosecute the Sicilian Mafia in the Maxi Trial that started in 1986. The murder of La Torre and Di Salvo were originally claimed by the left wing Gruppi proletari organizzati, in 1991, after nine years of investigations the Court of Palermo send nine bosses of the Sicilian Mafia Commission to trial
29.
Salvatore Lima
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Salvatore Achille Ettore Lima was an Italian politician from Sicily who was associated with, and murdered by, the Mafia. He is often just referred to as Salvo Lima, according to the pentito Tommaso Buscetta, Lima’s father, Vincenzo Lima, was a member of the Mafia, but it is not known whether Lima himself was a made member of Cosa Nostra. In the final report of the first Italian Antimafia Commission Lima was described as one of the pillars of Mafia power in Palermo and that shift earned him a seat in the national parliament in 1968. Lima was often referred to as Andreottis proconsul on Sicily, under Andreotti Lima once held a cabinet post. At the time of his death he was a member of the European Parliament, Lima rarely spoke in public or campaigned during elections, but usually he would manage to gain large support from seemingly nowhere when it came to voting day. From 1958 to 1963 Salvo Lima was mayor of Palermo, his birthplace, between 1951 and 1961 the population of Palermo had risen by 100,000. Under Lima and Ciancimino an unprecedented construction boom hit the city and they supported Mafia-allied building contractors such as Palermo’s leading construction entrepreneur Francesco Vassallo – a former cart driver hauling sand and stone in a poor district of Palermo. Vassallo was connected to mafiosi like Angelo La Barbera and Tommaso Buscetta, in five years, over 4,000 building licences were signed, more than half of them in the names of three pensioners who had no connection with construction at all. In the meantime Palermo’s historical centre was allowed to crumble, in 1964, during an investigation, Lima had to admit that he knew Angelo La Barbera, one of Palermos most powerful mobsters. Limas election was supported by the La Barbera clan, from 1965-1968 Lima again was mayor of Palermo. The Salvo’s were allowed 10 percent of the take – three times as much as the average of 3.3 percent. The La Barbera brothers helped Salvo Lima getting elected, Buscetta himself met Salvo Lima many times and they became good friends. Every year Lima provided Buscetta with tickets for the Teatro Massimo in Palermo, at the time, the public and authorities did not know these connections. Buscetta only revealed facts about the relations between mafiosi and politicians after judge Giovanni Falcone was killed in 1992, however, already in 1964 one of Falcone’s predecessors, judge Cesare Terranova, unequivocally demonstrated Lima’s connections with the La Barberas. In an indictment in 1964, Terranova wrote, it is clear that Angelo, knew former mayor Salvatore Lima and maintained relations in such a way as to ask for favours. The undeniable contacts of the La Barbera mafiosi with the one who was the first citizen of Palermo, the infiltration of the Mafia in several sectors of public life. Nevertheless, Lima was allowed to continue in politics as if nothing had happened, in 1968 Lima was elected to the Chamber of Deputies, suddenly surpassing established politicians in Sicily. The alliance between Lima and Andreotti proved beneficial to both, although Andreotti had a strong electoral base in and around Rome, his faction had no power base in the rest of Italy
30.
Luciano Violante
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Luciano Violante is an Italian judge and politician, Member of Parliament since 1979. He is particularly interested in questions of justice, the struggle against the Mafia, Violante was born in Dire Daua. His father, a journalist and Communist, was forced to emigrate to Ethiopia by the fascist regime and his family was interned by the British in a concentration camp, where Violante was born and remained until 1943. Graduated in jurisprudence at University of Bari in 1963, he joined the magistrature in 1966, later he held the position of full professor at University of Camerino. He indicted Edgardo Sogno in 1974 for having planned the so-called Golpe bianco, from 1977 to 1979 he worked in the legislative office of the Ministry of Justice, primarily concerned with the struggle against terrorism. He was named investigative magistrate in Turin in 1979, in 1983 he became a professor of legal institutions and penal procedure and resigned from the magistrature. Violante became a member of the Italian Communist Party in 1979 and was elected to the Parliament. From 1980 to 1987 he was the PCI spokesman for legal policy and he then became the vice-president of the PCI parliamentary group. Following the split of the PCI in 1991, he entered the Democratic Party of the Left, Violante was President of the Antimafia Commission from September 1992 until March 1994. Under his leadership the Commission investigated the relations between the Mafia and politics, the so-called terzo livello of the Mafia, on November 16,1992 Tommaso Buscetta testified before the Antimafia Commission about the links between Cosa Nostra and Salvo Lima and Giulio Andreotti. He indicated Salvo Lima as the contact of the Mafia in Italian politics, Salvo Lima was, in fact, the politician to whom Cosa Nostra turned most often to resolve problems for the organisation whose solution lay in Rome, Buscetta testified. Violante was elected president of the Chamber of Deputies on May 10,1996, re-elected at the 2001 election, he was named president of the Olive Tree-Democrats of the Left parliamentary group. Confirmed in his functions during the April 2006 election, he is currently the president of the Commission relative to constitutional matters, beside books on law and penal procedure, he is the author of two books of interviews about the Mafia, La mafia delleroina and I corleonesi. He has also published, Il piccone e la quercia, Non è la piovra and he also edited two volumes of the Annali della Storia dItalia, La criminalità and Legge Diritto Giustizia. In 1998 he published LItalia dopo il 1999, biography in English Official site Verbali della Commissione Parlamentare Antimafia XI legislatura, presidenza, Luciano Violante
31.
Years of Lead (Italy)
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The left-wing autonomist Marxist movement in Italy which was involved in many events of the period lasted from 1968 until the end of the 1970s. There was widespread social conflict and unprecedented acts of terrorism carried out by both right- and left-wing paramilitary groups, an attempt to endorse the neo-fascist Italian Social Movement by the Tambroni Cabinet led to rioting and was short-lived. The Christian Democrats were instrumental in the Italian Socialist Party gaining power in the 1960s, the assassination of the Christian Democrat leader Aldo Moro in 1978 ended the strategy of historic compromise between the DC and the Italian Communist Party. The assassination was carried out by the Red Brigades, then led by Mario Moretti, between 1969 and 1981, nearly 2,000 murders were attributed to political violence in the form of bombings, assassinations, and street warfare between rival militant factions. Public protests shook Italy during 1969, with the autonomist student movement being particularly active, on 19 November 1969, Antonio Annarumma, a Milanese policeman, was killed during a riot by far-left demonstrators. He was the first civil servant to die in the wave of violence, the Monument to Victor Emmanuel II, the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro in Rome and the Banca Commerciale Italiana and the Banca Nazionale dellAgricoltura in Milan were bombed in December. Local police arrested 80 or so suspects from left-wing groups, including Giuseppe Pinelli, an anarchist initially blamed for the bombing, and Pietro Valpreda. Their guilt was denied by left-wing members, especially by members of the student movement, then prominent in Milans universities, as they believed that the bombing was carried out by fascists. In 1975 Calabresi and other officials were acquitted by judge Gerardo DAmbrosio who decided that Pinellis fall had been caused by his being taken ill. Meanwhile, the anarchist Valpreda and five others were convicted and jailed for the bombing and they were later released after three years of preventive detention. Then, two neo-fascists, Franco Freda and Giovanni Ventura, were arrested accused of being the organizers of the massacre, in the 1990s, new investigations into the Piazza Fontana bombing, citing new witnesses testimony, implicated Freda and Ventura again. However, the pair cannot be put on again because of double jeopardy. The Red Brigades, the most prominent far-left terrorist organization, conducted an internal investigation that paralleled the official inquiry. They ordered that the inquiry remain secret, because of the light that it could shed on other terrorist organizations. The inquiry was discovered after a shootout between the Red Brigade and the Carabinieri at Robbiano di Mediglia in October 1974, the cover-up was exposed in 2000 by Giovanni Pellegrino, at the time President of the Commissione Stragi. The Red Brigades were founded in August 1970 by Renato Curcio and Margherita Cagol, who had met as students at the University of Trento and later married, and Alberto Franceschini. The first action of the RB was burning the car of Giuseppe Leoni on 17 September 1970, the Black Prince, Junio Valerio Borghese, took part in it. The coup, called off at the last moment, was discovered by the newspaper Paese Sera, on March 26, Alessandro Floris was assassinated in Genoa by a unit of the October 22 Group, a far-left terrorist organization
32.
Far-left politics
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Far-left politics or extreme-left politics is a branch of politics further to the left of the left-right spectrum than the standard political left. Far-left politics are generally the province of extra-governmental groups and those espousing them are typically opposed to their governments, dr. March sees four major subgroups within contemporary European far-left politics, communists, democratic socialists, populist socialists and social populists. Hloušek and Kopeček add secondary characteristics to those identified by March and Mudde, such as anti-Americanism, anti-globalization, opposition to NATO and these people include both authoritarians and libertarians. McClosky and Chong surveyed a number of militant, revolutionary groups in the US and they argue that, like far-right extremists. The term ultra-leftism has two overlapping uses, one usage is a generally pejorative term for certain types of positions on the far left that are extreme or intransigent. The term is also used—pejoratively or not—to refer to a current of Marxist communism. Ultra-left currents within left communism are often subject to criticisms from other factions of the left, the left communist organization International Communist Current refuses to work with leftist groups except for other left communists or anarchists. Gilles Dauvé, a left communist theorist, argues that all bourgeois regimes should be opposed, the term ultra left is rarely used in English, in which people tend to speak broadly of left communism as a minor variant of traditional Marxism. In opposition to Bolshevism, the left generally places heavy emphasis upon the autonomy. The term has been popularised in the United States by the Socialist Workers Party, a number of far-left parties gave birth to militant organisations during the 1960s and 1970s, such as the Red Brigades and the Red Army Faction. These groups generally aimed to overthrow capitalist systems and replace them with socialist societies
33.
Second Mafia War
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It involved over a thousand homicides. Sometimes referred to as The Great Mafia War or the Mattanza, it involved the entire Mafia, in addition to the violence within the Mafia itself, there was violence against the state, including a campaign of deliberate assassinations of judges, prosecutors, and politicians. In turn, the war resulted in a crackdown against the Mafia, helped by the pentiti, Mafiosi who collaborated with the authorities after losing so many friends. In effect, the conflict helped blow the lid of secrecy off the Mafia, the instigators of the Second Mafia War were the Corleonesi, the Mafia Family from the town of Corleone, although they were helped by a number of other Mafia Families. During the 1970s the Mafia in Sicily resumed its normal illicit business after the Mafia Trials of the 1960s had ended with few convictions, the Corleonesis primary rivals were Stefano Bontade, Salvatore Inzerillo and Gaetano Badalamenti, bosses of various powerful Palermo Mafia Families. The Sicilian Mafia Commission was re-established in 1970, with Bontade, the third was Leggio, although he was represented by Salvatore Riina as Leggio was in hiding on the Italian mainland. When Leggio was captured in 1974 and imprisoned for murder, Riina soon took over as boss of the Corleonesi with Bernardo Provenzano, the Corleonesi began to win over allies amongst other Mafia Families. Amongst those who aligned themselves with the Corleonesi were Palermo bosses Giuseppe Calò, Filippo Marchese and his place was taken by Ciaculli Godfather Michele The Pope Greco, who was also aligned with Riina. Greco, like Calò, Marchese and Riccobono, kept his secret from the likes of Bontade. It was also in 1978 that Riina arranged for the murders of Giuseppe Di Cristina and Giuseppe Calderone, bosses of Riesi, both men were allies of Bontade and Inzerillo, their successors were allies of Riina, who sponsored them. Gradually, the bosses of Palermo and their men were isolated, on 23 April 1981, Bontade was machine-gunned to death, and a few weeks later, on 11 May Inzerillo was killed in a hail of bullets. Various relatives and associates of the pair were killed or vanished without trace, including Inzerillos 15-year-old son. On 29 September of the year, Calogero Pizzuto, another close ally of Bontade. Badalamenti only managed to survive by fleeing Sicily after the Corleonesi had him expelled in the late 1970s, more and more killings took place over the next two years. On 30 November 1982, twelve Mafiosi were murdered in Palermo in twelve separate incidents, the murders extended across the Atlantic, with one of Inzerillos brothers being found dead in New Jersey after fleeing to the U. S. The dismembered body of one of Badalamentis nephews turned up in a field in Germany, amongst the many hitmen at the disposal of the Corleonesi and their allied clans was Giuseppe Greco from Ciaculli. He was a member of the Ciaculli clan headed by his uncle, Michele The Pope Greco, an ace shot with an AK-47, Giuseppe Greco is suspected of killing around eighty people on behalf of Riina, including Bontade and Inzerillo. He led a squad of hitmen, which included Mario Prestifilippo
34.
Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa
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General Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa OMRI OMI SMOM OESSH was an Italian general, notable for campaigning against terrorism during the 1970s in Italy. He was assassinated by the Mafia in Palermo, on May 1,1982, Dalla Chiesa was appointed as prefect for Palermo to stop the violence of the Second Mafia War. He was murdered in Palermo on September 3,1982, on the orders of Mafia boss Salvatore Riina, the gunmen opened fire and Dalla Chiesa was killed along with his wife and their driver. The lead killer was Giuseppe Greco, who was convicted in absentia of the crime at the Maxi Trial. A number of gunmen were involved, including twenty-one-year-old Giuseppe Lucchese. Riina and various other Mafia bosses, such as Benedetto Santapaola, were convicted for ordering the killing. Dalla Chiesa was also investigating the death of Mauro de Mauro, a journalist who had himself been investigating the murder of Enrico Mattei, head of Agip, the Italian oil company. In response to a suggestion that torture be used in the investigation, Dalla Chiesa stated and it would not survive the introduction of torture. His son Nando dalla Chiesa, who is a professor at the University of Milan, is the president honoris causa of the anti-mafia organisation Libera founded by Luigi Ciotti. Cento giorni a Palermo List of victims of the Sicilian Mafia Sentenza primo grado omicidio Dalla Chiesa
35.
Maxi Trial
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The Maxi Trial was a criminal trial against the Sicilian Mafia that took place in Palermo in Sicily. It started on 10 February 1986 and lasted until 30 January 1992, the trial was held in a bunker-courthouse specially constructed for this purpose inside the walls of the prison of Palermo. Most were convicted to imprisonment and, to the surprise of many. The importance of the trial was that the existence of Cosa Nostra was finally judicially confirmed and its considered to be the most important trial against Sicilian Mafia and the biggest trial ever held in the World. The existence and crimes of the Mafia had been denied or merely downplayed by many people in authority for decades, despite proof of its criminal activities dating back to the 19th century. In fact it was only in 1980 that it was first seriously suggested that being a member of the Mafia should be a criminal offence by Communist politician Pio La Torre. The law only came into effect two years later—after La Torre had been gunned down for making that very suggestion, after Chinnicis murder in July 1983, his successor Antonino Caponnetto headed the pool. The Maxi trial took place next to the Ucciardone, Palermos massive nineteenth-century Bourbon prison, in a specially designed. Never before in the history of the Mafia had so many Mafiosi been on trial at the same time, after several years of investigating by the Antimafia pool, the trial began on 10 February 1986. The presiding judge was Alfonso Giordano, flanked by two judges who were alternates, should anything fatal happen to Giordano before the end of what was to be a lengthy trial. Judge Giordano won a lot of praise for remaining patient and fair during such a case with so many defendants. The Corleonesi continued its vendetta against Buscetta by killing more of his relatives. Testifying against the Corleonesi was the way he had left of avenging his murdered family. Some evidence was presented posthumously from Leonardo Vitale. Although Buscetta is widely regarded as the first of the pentiti, back in 1973, 32-year-old Leonardo Vitale had turned himself in at a Palermo police station and he said he had committed many crimes for them, including two murders. He said he had been having a crisis and felt remorse. The only Mafiosi convicted by his testimony were Vitale himself and his Uncle, Vitale was held in a mental asylum then released in June 1984, six months later he was shot dead. There were many critics of the Maxi Trial, some implied that the defendants were being victimized as part of some sort of vendetta of the magistrates
36.
Freemasonry
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The degrees of freemasonry retain the three grades of medieval craft guilds, those of Apprentice, Journeyman or fellow, and Master Mason. These are the degrees offered by Craft Freemasonry, members of these organisations are known as Freemasons or Masons. There are additional degrees, which vary with locality and jurisdiction, the basic, local organisational unit of Freemasonry is the Lodge. The Lodges are usually supervised and governed at the level by a Grand Lodge or Grand Orient. There is no international, worldwide Grand Lodge that supervises all of Freemasonry, each Grand Lodge is independent, modern Freemasonry broadly consists of two main recognition groups. Continental Freemasonry is now the term for the liberal jurisdictions who have removed some, or all. The Masonic Lodge is the organisational unit of Freemasonry. The Lodge meets regularly to conduct the formal business of any small organisation. In addition to business, the meeting may perform a ceremony to confer a Masonic degree or receive a lecture, at the conclusion of the meeting, the Lodge might adjourn for a formal dinner, or festive board, sometimes involving toasting and song. The bulk of Masonic ritual consists of degree ceremonies, candidates for Freemasonry are progressively initiated into Freemasonry, first in the degree of Entered Apprentice. Some time later, in a ceremony, they will be passed to the degree of Fellowcraft. In all of ceremonies, the candidate is entrusted with passwords, signs. Another ceremony is the installation of the Master and officers of the Lodge. In some jurisdictions Installed Master is valued as a separate rank, in other jurisdictions, the grade is not recognised, and no inner ceremony conveys new secrets during the installation of a new Master of the Lodge. Most Lodges have some sort of calendar, allowing Masons. Often coupled with events is the obligation placed on every Mason to contribute to charity. This occurs at both Lodge and Grand Lodge level, Masonic charities contribute to many fields from education to disaster relief. These private local Lodges form the backbone of Freemasonry, and a Freemason will necessarily have been initiated into one of these, there also exist specialist Lodges where Masons meet to celebrate anything from sport to Masonic research
37.
Usury
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Usury is, as defined today, the practice of making unethical or immoral monetary loans that unfairly enrich the lender. Originally, usury meant interest of any kind, a loan may be considered usurious because of excessive or abusive interest rates or other factors. Historically in Christian societies, and still in many Islamic societies today, someone who practices usury can be called a usurer, but a more common term in contemporary English is loan shark. The term may be used in a moral sense—condemning, taking advantage of others misfortunes—or in a legal sense where interest rates may be regulated by law, historically, some cultures have regarded charging any interest for loans as sinful. Some of the earliest known condemnations of usury come from the Vedic texts of India, similar condemnations are found in religious texts from Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. At times, many nations from ancient China to ancient Greece to ancient Rome have outlawed loans with any interest, though the Roman Empire eventually allowed loans with carefully restricted interest rates, the Christian church in medieval Europe banned the charging of interest at any rate. Banking during Roman times was different from modern banking, during the Principate, most banking activities were conducted by private individuals, not by large banking firms like the ones that exist today. Since almost all moneylenders in the Empire were private individuals, anybody that had any additional capital and wished to lend it out could easily do so. The annual rates of interest on loans varied in the range of 4–12 percent, the apparent absence of intermediate rates suggests that the Romans may have had difficulty calculating the interest due on anything other than mathematically convenient rates. They quoted them on a basis, and the most common rates were multiples of twelve. Monthly rates tended to range from simple fractions to 3–4 percent, moneylending during this period was largely a matter of private loans advanced to persons short of cash, whether persistently in debt or temporarily until the next harvest. Mostly, it was undertaken by exceedingly rich men who were prepared to take on a risk if the profit looked good. Investment was always regarded as a matter of seeking personal profit, Banking was of the small, back-street variety, run by the urban lower-middle class of petty shopkeepers. By the 3rd century, acute currency problems in the Empire drove them into decline and it was evident that usury meant exploitation of the poor. The First Council of Nicaea, in 325, forbade clergy from engaging in usury, at the time, usury was interest of any kind, and the canon forbade the clergy to lend money at interest rates even as low as 1 percent per year. Later ecumenical councils applied this regulation to the laity, Lateran III decreed that persons who accepted interest on loans could receive neither the sacraments nor Christian burial. Pope Clement V made the belief in the right to usury a heresy in 1311, pope Sixtus V condemned the practice of charging interest as detestable to God and man, damned by the sacred canons and contrary to Christian charity. Theological historian John Noonan argues that the doctrine was enunciated by popes, certain negative historical renditions of usury carry with them social connotations of perceived unjust or discriminatory lending practices
38.
Capaci bombing
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Giovanni Falcone was an Italian judge and prosecuting magistrate. From his office in the Palace of Justice in Palermo, he spent most of his life trying to overthrow the power of the Sicilian Mafia. After a long and distinguished career, culminating in the famous Maxi Trial in 1986-1987, he was killed by the Corleonesi Mafia in May 1992 and his life parallels that of his close friend Paolo Borsellino. They both spent their early years in the neighborhood in Palermo. And though many of their childhood friends grew up in the Mafia background and they were both killed in 1992, a few months apart. In recognition of their tireless effort and sacrifice during the anti-mafia trials and they were also named as heroes of the last 60 years in the November 13,2006, issue of Time Magazine. His father, Arturo Falcone, the director of a chemical laboratory, was married to Luisa Bentivegna. Giovanni had two sisters, Anna and Maria. Falcones parents emphasised the importance of work, bravery and patriotism. At school Falcone would get into fights with larger children if he thought his friends were being picked on, as boys, Falcone and Borsellino, who were born in the same neighbourhood, played soccer together on the Piazza Magione. Both had classmates who ended up as mafiosi, after a classical education, Giovanni studied law at the University of Palermo following a brief period of study at Livornos naval academy. Falcone and Borsellino met again at Palermo University, however, neither ever joined a political party, and although the ideologies of their political movements were diametrically opposed, they shared a history of opposing the Mafia. Their different political leanings did not thwart their friendship, Falcone wanted a naval career but his father thought him too independent-minded for the armed forces, and sent him to study law. Graduating in 1961, Falcone began to practice law before being appointed a judge in 1964, Falcone eventually gravitated toward penal law after serving as a district magistrate. He was assigned to the office in Trapani and Marsala. In early 1980, Falcone joined the ‘Office of Instruction’, the branch of the Prosecution Office of Palermo. He started to work at a tense moment. Taking Terranova’s place was Rocco Chinnici, who was murdered by the Mafia in 1983, on May 5,1980, Giulianos successor in investigating the heroin network, Carabinieri captain Emanuele Basile, was killed
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Giovanni Falcone
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Giovanni Falcone was an Italian judge and prosecuting magistrate. From his office in the Palace of Justice in Palermo, he spent most of his life trying to overthrow the power of the Sicilian Mafia. After a long and distinguished career, culminating in the famous Maxi Trial in 1986-1987, he was killed by the Corleonesi Mafia in May 1992 and his life parallels that of his close friend Paolo Borsellino. They both spent their early years in the neighborhood in Palermo. And though many of their childhood friends grew up in the Mafia background and they were both killed in 1992, a few months apart. In recognition of their tireless effort and sacrifice during the anti-mafia trials and they were also named as heroes of the last 60 years in the November 13,2006, issue of Time Magazine. His father, Arturo Falcone, the director of a chemical laboratory, was married to Luisa Bentivegna. Giovanni had two sisters, Anna and Maria. Falcones parents emphasised the importance of work, bravery and patriotism. At school Falcone would get into fights with larger children if he thought his friends were being picked on, as boys, Falcone and Borsellino, who were born in the same neighbourhood, played soccer together on the Piazza Magione. Both had classmates who ended up as mafiosi, after a classical education, Giovanni studied law at the University of Palermo following a brief period of study at Livornos naval academy. Falcone and Borsellino met again at Palermo University, however, neither ever joined a political party, and although the ideologies of their political movements were diametrically opposed, they shared a history of opposing the Mafia. Their different political leanings did not thwart their friendship, Falcone wanted a naval career but his father thought him too independent-minded for the armed forces, and sent him to study law. Graduating in 1961, Falcone began to practice law before being appointed a judge in 1964, Falcone eventually gravitated toward penal law after serving as a district magistrate. He was assigned to the office in Trapani and Marsala. In early 1980, Falcone joined the ‘Office of Instruction’, the branch of the Prosecution Office of Palermo. He started to work at a tense moment. Taking Terranova’s place was Rocco Chinnici, who was murdered by the Mafia in 1983, on May 5,1980, Giulianos successor in investigating the heroin network, Carabinieri captain Emanuele Basile, was killed
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Via D'Amelio bombing
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The via DAmelio bombing was a terrorist bombing that took place in Palermo, Sicily, on 19 July 1992. A carabinieri officer who was present when the explosion occurred reported that he had delivered the notebook to Giuseppe Ayala, when they arrived, Vullo and the other agents noticed nothing unusual except some parked cars. The car in which Borsellino had been travelling exploded, along one of the escort cars. The bomb, containing some 100 kg of TNT, had placed in a Fiat 126. Gaspare Spatuzza, a mafioso who became a pentito, eventually revealed that he had stolen the Fiat 126 on the orders of the Graviano. The night after the massacre, protesters besieged the prefecture of Palermo. Borsellinos funeral saw vehement protests by the crowd against the participants, a few days later, questore Vito Plantone and prefetto Mario Jovine were transferred. The chief prosecutor of Palermo, Pietro Giammanco, resigned, meanwhile,7,000 soldiers were sent to Sicily to patrol roads and possible locations for attacks. Borsellino used to carry a red notebook, the agenda rossa. His colleagues were not given access to the agenda rossa, carabinieri officer Rosario Farinella said later that after recovering the agenda rossa from the car, he gave it to Ayala. Ayala stated that he was staying in a nearby and rushed to the place after hearing the explosion. He initially stumbled on the corpse of Borsellino without recognizing it, Ayala said that an officer in uniform had offered him the notebook, but that he had refused it because he lacked authority. Carabinieri captain Arcangioli declared that he was not wearing uniform at the scene, in September 2005, Ayala changed his version, declaring that he took the agenda rossa while exploring the destroyed car and that he later gave it to a carabinieri officer who was there. Ayalas subsequent statements speak of an agent alternately in uniform and not in uniform, on 1 July 1992 Borsellino had held a meeting with Nicola Mancino, who at the time had just been appointed Minister of the Interior. Details of the meeting have never disclosed, but it is likely that Borsellino had annotated them in his agenda. Mancino, however, always denied that he had met Borsellino, in a television interview of 24 July 2009, Ayala said, Mancino himself told me that he had met Borsellino on 1 July 1992. Moreover, Mancino showed me his appointments book, with the name of Borsellino on it, Ayala repudiated this account in an interview in Sette magazine. A video showing Arcangioli holding the agenda rossa while inspecting the area was aired in news on Italian state channel Rai 1 in 2006
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Paolo Borsellino
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Paolo Borsellino was an Italian judge and prosecuting magistrate. He was killed by a Mafia car bomb in Palermo,57 days after his friend and fellow Antimafia magistrate Giovanni Falcone was assassinated. He is considered to be one of the most important magistrates killed by the Sicilian Mafia, both Borsellino and Falcone were named as heroes of the last 60 years in the November 13,2006, issue of Time Magazine. Forty-seven people were convicted in connection with his murder, but the case was discredited by the revelations of Gaspare Spatuzza. His father was a pharmacist and his mother ran a pharmacy in the Via della Vitriera, as boys Borsellino and Falcone – who was born in the same neighbourhood – played soccer together on the Piazza Mangione. The Mafia was present in the area but quiescent, both had classmates who ended up as mafiosi. The house where he was born was declared unsafe and the family was forced to out in 1956. The pharmacy remained, while the neighbourhood around it crumbled, Borsellino and Falcone met again at Palermo University. Both never joined a party, however, and although the ideologies of those political movements were diametrically opposed. Their different political leanings did not thwart their friendship, both decided to join the magistrature. Borsellino obtained a degree in law at the University of Palermo, with honours, after his fathers death, he passed the judiciary exam in 1963. During those years, he worked in cities in Sicily. After he married in 1968, he transferred to his native Palermo in 1975 together with Rocco Chinnici, neither Borsellino nor Falcone had intended to get involved in the struggle against the Mafia. They were assigned cases involving the Mafia that continued to expand and they saw colleagues murdered fighting the Mafia and it became increasingly impossible to turn back. One of his accomplishments included the arrest of six Mafia members in 1980 including Leoluca Bagarella the brother-in-law of Mafia boss Salvatore Riina and his close co-investigator, the Carabinieri captain Emanuele Basile, was murdered by the Mafia the same year. Borsellino was assigned to investigate the murder and became a target when he signed the arrest warrant for Francesco Madonia on a charge of ordering the murder of Basile. He became part of Palermos Antimafia Pool, created by Chinnici, the group consisted of Falcone, Borsellino, Giuseppe Di Lello and Leonardo Guarnotta. In 1983, Rocco Chinnici was killed by a bomb in his car and his place in the Antimafia Pool was taken by Antonino Caponnetto
